A renowned guitarist and vocalist who has sold millions of albums. From 1995 on, he took seven singles into the Top 10, and holds the record for the longest-running album on the Billboard Blues Charts. He has been nominated for five GRAMMY Awards and has received two Billboard Music Awards, two Blues Music Awards, and two Orville H. Gibson Awards. In September 2008, Fender Musical Instruments Corp. released a Signature Series Stratocaster that he designed exclusively. In 2013 he, along with Stephen Stills and Barry Goldberg formed a band called The Rides. Throughout his career he has opened up for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Van Halen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aerosmith, Bob Dylan, and The Eagles. From television performances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to The Late Show with David Letterman to Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to features in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Maxim Magazine, Blender, Spin, USA Today and more, his musical career has been nothing short of phenomenal. He has a new album coming in November, with a new song coming each month between now and then.
(the song “Blue on Black”) “It went to number one on the rock charts and stayed there at the time for so long that it set a record for the longest, consecutive weeks at number one in the history of the rock charts at the time.”
“I had the opportunity, if I wanted to, to try and completely reinvent the record or change anything that might’ve been bothering me about it.”
“It was a really great exercise because then I was able to go, ‘You know what? The stuff that we’ve done live – in the moment it might feel good, it might feel exciting and fun and all that stuff – but it got really far away from the vibe of the original song, which made that so special,’ I’m like, ‘Wow, we really need to get back to square one, here’.”
“It’s like we’re trying to push the genre. That’s what I’ve always done, to be honest with you, is I’ve taken blues music as the foundation of what I do and then I’ve tried to take that and push it into new and different directions.”
“I love doing what we do. I love playing music and it’s a great opportunity that I’ve been given to be able to do this for a living and I don’t take it for granted.”
“I’m still continuing to produce new music and trying to take my music into different directions.”
“Every time I saw (Stevie Ray Vaughan) play, which was more than once, I was in just complete awe of him, just completely enthralled, and captivated, so, he really had a profound effect on me… It became I want to be able to affect people the way he affected people, or at least come close to it. I met him several times and he was just one of the nicest people… If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know that there would be a Kenny Wayne Shepherd.”
“I just can’t even imagine my life without being able to play guitar. That would just be shocking to me.”
“I play music ‘cause I love to play music and I think that’s part of the key of longevity with anything is that you’re doing it because you love doing it and not because someone’s telling you to do it.”
“That evening I was playing the white Fender Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock.”
“I’ve been very fortunate, actually, in my career to play a lot of very famous guitars, and to be trusted to do that was a real honor.”
“Stephen (Stills) is like a big brother to me. I actually just saw him, and we played together in Indianapolis… at a concert… it was a big all-star show that we did.”
“Blue On Black”
“Sweet & Low”